Final Thoughts
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Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
September 24, 2013
I want to thank IHS Global Insight for allowing SMU and our readers to attend their Pricing & Purchasing Summit which was held in Chicago over the past two days. SMU is interested in conducting a similar conference dedicated to the steel industry and identifying risks next year as we strive to bring new value to our members and the steel community.
Based on the conversations I have been having with end users, service centers and steel mills over the past few days it appears we may be in one of those interesting times within the steel industry. We have a number of factors coming together – new management at two mills – USS and Severstal and another mill is for sale (ThyssenKrupp). We have contract negotiations beginning and, so far, the mills seem to be committed to doing a better job of controlling their fate and attempting to become more profitable. After many years of shooting themselves in the foot maybe now is the time to make a stand?
Of course end users are not pleased with the changes and I found John Anton of IHS Global Insight comments today to be compelling – maybe it is time for buyers to weigh all of the risks in their supply chain and supporting slightly higher prices may pay dividends over the longer term.
Earlier this evening, Severstal NA announced the appointment of a new Vice President of Commercial. His name is Sachin Shivaram and his background is with ArcelorMittal and McKinsey and Company. He replaces Tom Marchak who has been appointed to the position as Special Advisor to the CEO. We will have more on this on our blog tomorrow.
By the way – John Temples and I will be at Metalcon this year in Atlanta. I expect to attend the AKZO Nobel cocktail reception and to be on the floor for the first day of the show. If you would like to make arrangements to speak to John or myself you can shoot us an email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
As always we want to thank our members for their support and their business which is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
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John Packard
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Final thoughts
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
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Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
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Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
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Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
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Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!